Vincenzo GemitoItalian, 1852–1929Medusa
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the sculpture
The severed head of Medusa stares out from the convex face of a two-sided relief. Its psychological realism reveals the conflicting yet symbiotic emotions of attraction and repulsion. The gaze of Medusa--transformed by the goddess Athena into a creature with snakes for hair--turned anyone who would look at her into stone. The sculptor Vincenzo Gemito derived his composition from the famous antique cameo, the *Tazza Farnese,* but transformed it into an entirely new kind of sculptural object. He revived Renaissance techniques of lost-wax casting to make the relief. Although he concentrated on the face of the two-sided, glistening metallic relief, he textured the back with snakeskin.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- 86.SE.528
In the catalog
Sources
- J. Paul Getty Museum
- Image: J. Paul Getty Museum — Open Content
